Sports

Beukeboom, Archibald to play on

Brock Beukeboom's Ontario Hockey League playoff career was over almost as soon as it began.

Suspended for the first four games of the post-season, the 18-year-old Soo Greyhounds defenceman returned just in time to see his team eliminated by the Plymouth Whalers.

But Beukeboom still has hockey left to play this season. Not only has the six-foot-one, 195-pound native of Uxbridge, Ont. been named to Team Canada's roster for the World Under-18 Hockey Championships, April 13-23 in Minsk and Bobruisk, Belarus, but he and Soo teammate Brandon Archibald have been invited to the NHL Scouting Combine, May 24-29 in Toronto.

"Brock has gotten some really good experience, first with Team Ontario, with the under-17 championships his first year with us and then last year, with the summer under-18's," Hounds general manager Dave Torrie said. "I think those things really worked in his favour, having that experience, and I believe he'll continue to be a guy who represents his country.

"As a player, he has a lot of attributes which both us and Team Canada enjoy. He's a great skater, an elite skater, he shoots well, he makes a great outlet pass and he has the attributes to be a physical player, a role in which he has thrived on the international stage. That's something we started to see more from him as a 17-year-old in the OHL this year and area where we expect to see progression as he becomes an elite OHLer."

Archibald, a six-foot-three, 200-pound native of Port Huron, Mich., was part of Team USA's entry in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, an under-18 event held last summer in Slovakia.

But he wasn't named to this year's team, which is mostly composed of players from USA Hockey's National Development Program.

Only one OHLer, Austin Watson of the Peterborough Petes, was named to the roster.

"They usually stay pretty well inside the program for that tournament," said Archibald, who has been staying in Burlington, Ont. while training for the NHL combine. "I'm actually surprised they added that player from Peterborough.

"I thought there might be a chance I'd make it, but I was pretty sure they'd just stick with that team."